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monday

Rumor is, after Cold Mountain sold 4 million copies, won a National Book Award, and inspired a Nicole Kidman flick, Charles Frazier sold his next book to Random House for $8 million based on nothing more than a one-page outline. In the near-decade since Frazier’s debut novel hit the big time, the mildly reclusive middle-aged author has had plenty of time to fill that out. And fill it out he has: Frazier’s sophomore tome, Thirteen Moons, comes in at 400-plus pages, telling the story of Will Cooper, a North Carolina mountain boy, just like Frazier’s previous hero. But Cooper’s quest is nowhere near as precise as the lovelorn Confederate soldier Inman’s: Sent into Indian territory as a lad to set up a trading post, Cooper takes a path through life as meandering as Frazier’s prose. Thirteen Moons—essentially Cold Mountain but longer and schlockier—isn’t going to win Frazier any new readers. But when you’ve got 4 million old readers, who needs new ones? Frazier discusses and signs copies of his work at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919. (Mike DeBonis)